Bee World, a journal of the non-profit organisation the International Bee Research Association, recently contained an article entitled 'The incidence and world distribution of honey bee viruses' (77(3): 141-162; 1996). The authors were Mark Allen and Brenda Ball of Rothamsted Research Station in the UK. Kashmir bee virus has been reported from Apis cerana from India and Papua New Guinea, and from Apis mellifera from Australia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, Canada, the USA and Spain. About Kashmir bee virus the authors of this article say "subsequent surveys and infectivity tests (in Australia) confirmed that it was common there both as inapparent and overt infections; up to 40% of health pupae were inapparently infected with KBV but the percentage of infection varied from year to year. Strains of KBV were also detected in both A. mellifera and A. cerana from other countries in Australasia, and for many years it was thought that the virus was present only in bees from this region. More recently, strains of KBV have been isolated from dead, field-collected adult bees from Canada, the USA and Spain, and infectivity tests on adult bees in the USA show that KBV is a widespread inapparent infection." This article, which is heavily referenced, and other information on KBV is available from the International Bee Research Association: [log in to unmask] Andrew